Nathan Aspinall sacrificing N-DUBZ for Grand Slam glory

After reaching the final four of the Grand Slam of Darts, Nathan Aspinall joked that he was “raging” about missing an N-Dubz concert.

With a 16-12 victory over Alan Soutar, the Asp advanced to the semi-finals. On Sunday afternoon, he will face Luke Humphries, who defeated Michael van Gerwen 16-10, with the winner of Michael Smith versus Raymond van Barneveld awaiting in the final.

Aspinall was expected to do well at the Grand Slam after a strong second half of the year that included a run to the final of last month’s World Grand Prix.

He also had tickets to see N-Dubz, who reunited for a tour this year, and he admitted that while he’d prefer to win the title in Wolverhampton, he is secretly a fan, despite primarily going to support his partner, Kirsty.

“I’m buzzing obviously to get through, another semi-final of a major and I’m on cloud nine. Performance wise, I’m disappointed. I let him in so many times. i wasn’t clinical enough but I’m not a guy who looks at the negatives. I’m going to take the positives that I’m into finals day. So I don’t care, I’m in the semi-finals happy days,”

“I will not relax and I will not step off the boil as bad as I did tonight. I believe I can win but I have to perform and play well to win so tomorrow (Sunday) will be a different Nathan. If I was playing a Van Gerwen, Smith or Gezzy tonight, I wouldn’t have won that game.”

“If I want to become an elite player, I’ve got to learn to play well from start to finish in these matches.”

“Her birthday is on Friday when we go Minehead every year, she has a rubbish birthday every year. She loves Dappy and Tulisa so I bought N-Dubz tickets and I actually like it too. I can’t go with her tomorrow, I’d rather hold that trophy than shake hands with Dappy.”